I've been known, on occasion, to dwell, obsess, fixate...I can hear my family sniggering at the 'on occasion' bit. I call it my analysis/over-analysis/paralysis shtick, and while I've become well aware of it, and am working hard these days to derail it, my neural pathways seem quite content to stay the course. I recently came across the website http://5minuteproject.com where a group of photographers have gathered on-line to share what they capture in a five minute time span. The time frame is the only rule, the who/what/when/where/how is entirely up to each of them. The concept intrigued me and I thought it might be a good antidote to my aforementioned gig. So, I've decided to give it a go on my own, shooting whatever strikes my fancy every now and again, with a strict five minute time limit. I've had a little chat with my self and we've agreed to keep the whole of this project simple...essentially there will be no rules, other than there's to be no thinking about the who/what/when/where/how bits, I'll just pick up my camera when moved to do so, with whatever lens happens to be on it, to shoot for no more than five minutes, edit for no more than five minutes, and post it all here, taking no more than five minutes to do so. I'm expecting the images won't be perfect, they might not even be pretty, but I suspect that will be exactly the point. For me, this project will not be about striving for perfection but all about the practice and the learning, about being in the moment instead of in my monkey mind, about just simply taking five...
My first #5minuteproject installment comes from a recent bout of baking. I'd never attempted to make date squares, or matrimonial bars as I knew them growing up, working under the assumption they'd be far too intricate and tricky a recipe for me to tackle. Maybe such thoughts came from the fact that when I was growing up it was always accomplished bakers who made them....my mom, my Auntie Joyce, my nana. Nobody knew how to cook and bake like these three graces. But no matter, for whatever reason, I had it in my head that this would be too complicated a dessert for me to attempt. Well, one try and I learned otherwise. And while the making of them might have taken a bit longer than five minutes, though not much (who knew they were so quick and simple?), the picture taking did not. A few snaps here and there throughout the process and voila. Here you have it.
And with that, I'm off to take another kind of five...with a hot cuppa and a particularly yummy square.
